ThiefHott Too much of everything

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

HomeyTao For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

cocomariev I found "Gabbeh" boring. It was nearly impossible for me to sit through. There was no excitement. In this film, the director is an artist. Mosen Makhmalbaf does a great job on using colors throughout the movie, but that's the only good thing that I saw. The costumes, the Persian carpet, the sky and landscape vividly show Mosen Makhmalbaf's use of color. I didn't really understand the story at all. Other than the colors, the movie has nothing going for itself. The story wasn't interesting and I didn't feel engaged at all. I will never watch this film again. I get that Mosen Makhmalbaf wanted to display a work of art, but when half of the class is completely clueless there is confusion behind the meaning of the story, don't you think something is wrong?

Elizabeth Stone Gabbeh is unique because it is only the second Iranian film distributed around the United States. The definition of an actual gabbeh is an Iranian carpet that is produced by women. It is similar to American quilts. They are usually full of color and sometimes tell stories. This quality is what this movie plays off of. The beginning of the film shows an elderly couple at a stream washing their rug. There is a couple sewed on it, and they begin discussing the story behind it. The woman from the rug comes to life. It takes the viewer a second to realize what had happened, because there are no special effects or special camera angles used to make this clear. The fact that only one face at a time is shown, and when the camera back up, only the elderly woman is shown what seems like talking to herself. Another thing that gives that she is not real is that fact that she is wearing the same shawl as the elderly woman, and her name is Gabbeh, the name of the carpet. She begins to tell the old woman her tragic story, which all ties in with the overwhelming theme of color. She wants to marry her lover who stays on horseback and is never shown up close. She can not do this until her uncle gets married and several other stipulations have been met. Color is used as a rebellious symbol because it usually is not allowed or considered appropriate for bright and rich colors to be worn by women of that time, but in this film, every woman is a multitude of colors, fabrics, and even dangling tokens coming off of their dresses and shawls.

CoolReviewBro Chaste and chased, the young woman protagonist in Gabbeh shows just how hard it is to live life as a nomad and how hard it is to be with the one you love. When you’re a nomad, and especially a nomad in Iran, you must follow the lead and orders of the patriarchal leader. This fact of life becomes tough stuff for the young female protagonist and the man seeking to marry her. Indeed, the protagonist’s father did not want to let her go. Why this is the case I don’t know. Perhaps women are like assets for nomadic clans. When the father allows his daughters to marry, does the family of the potential husband give plenty of gifts, goods, and animals in exchange? Perhaps this is the case in Iran. I don't know. One thing I do know is that Gabbeh illustrates how the best kind of love is the love you fight for and take risks on.I don’t know the courtship rituals amongst nomadic tribes but I do know that the protagonist’s husband showed immense fortitude and persistence. In western society, if you follow a woman that length of time for such small gestures of affection and recognition you better be sure you have a chance with her because if you don’t you’ll have a 500ft restraining order placed on you within a matter of days. However, for the protagonist’s husband, the juice was indeed worth the squeeze. The rich, illustrious, and sensual colors associated with the protagonist indeed reflect her beauty and appearance. The wolf call in the film was also illustrative of the protagonist’s beauty. In western society, male wolf howls, cat calls, and whistles may seem demeaning to women adorned in short skirts, high-heels, and glittered bosoms. This is not the case for Gabbeh’s protagonist, however. Adorned in the traditional nomadic garb, the wolf call was a symbol of her pursuing lover’s “lone wolf” solitude and his reverence for her bold but distant beauty. Go watch this movie if you want to know what it sounds like when doves cry.

donnatav I saw this film several years ago when it was first released in the United States and have waited anxiously ever since for it to be released on DVD. The beauty of costume and scenery is enthralling but no less captivating is the love story surrounded by the cultural strictures which have a mythic overlay. Although half my family is Iranian, like most Iranian films, I think it requires more than one viewing to follow and absorb the story line but is well worth the effort. It is a romantic film in the true sense of the word, leaving one with a sense of completion and fulfillment. It is a film for those who have patience and love art and enjoy being swept into another world.